And no country has effectively switched from a stay-at-home order “to a public health model for testing, tracking, isolation and quarantine,” Dr. Richard Besser, former managing director of the US CDC.

“We must find a way to make that transition in a successful way, or every state that is reopened – even those who have done a very good job of curbing this – will see a dramatic increase,” Besser told CNN Tuesday.

“And we will return to where we were before.”

If U.S. don’t get control over the coronavirus pandemic in the fall, “you basically chase forest fires,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told the House committee Tuesday.

The aim is to get full control of the virus, not just reduce it, which is happening now, said Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Redfield said the virus has highlighted the lack of investment in “the core capabilities of public health data” for decades. Now is the time to repair a broken system, he added.

“This needs a partnership. Not all the burden on the federal government to invest in public health at the local level,” Redfield said. In fact, “if your CDC funds leave tomorrow, public health infrastructure throughout the country will be destroyed.”

“We are now the backbone.”

“The next few weeks will be critical in our ability to cope with surgeries that we see in Florida, in Texas, in Arizona and in other countries – they are not the only ones who have difficulty,” Fauci said.

During Fauci’s testimony during Tuesday’s trial, the country’s top infectious disease expert appealed to all Americans:

“Plan A: Don’t get into the crowd. Plan B: If you do, make sure you wear a mask.”

Why does this surge time make sense

Health experts say the surge in new cases now coincides with countries that began reopening a few weeks ago – with many people rejecting or ignoring safety measures such as wearing masks and maintaining social distance.

And while health officials report a jump in cases among younger people, Redfield said Tuesday more than half the country’s nursing homes – more than 7,000 – had Covid-19 patients in them.

“Two weeks ago, we had 17 countries with increasing cases,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infection Disease Research & Policy at the University of Minnesota.

Now, that number has jumped to at least 25 countries. “And we are likely to move more states into the category of increasing cases very quickly,” Osterholm said Tuesday. “So, we see what reactions there are in the virus to open up and make more contact with each other.”

After exposure to this virus, it can take up to two weeks for symptoms to appear. After that, people may not be tested immediately. Then, it might take longer for severe cases to require hospitalization.

While health officials expect new cases when the country reopens, many do not expect new cases and hospitalizations to increase dramatically in some places.

Arizona set a new record this week for the number of people hospitalized on certain days with Covid-19 – around 2,000, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project. The state’s seven-day inpatient movement rate has also increased.

“People are treated in hospital beds and treated in ICU beds (intensive care units) faster than they are sent home,” said Will Humble, executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association.

With about 84% of the state ICU beds full, Humble said he was worried that hospitals would go into “crisis care standards,” which basically meant “lower care for everyone, not just people with Covid-19.”

California recorded more than 35% of total infections from all pandemics in only the last two weeks. The state on Monday recorded 5,019 confirmed cases of the corona virus, the highest again every day, according to data provided by the California Department of Public Health. Inpatient care is also at the highest level for Covid-19 patients.

Not just an increase in testing

Some politicians have linked the surge in new cases with increased testing. But in many places, the number of new Covid-19 cases was disproportionately higher than the number of new tests conducted, the researchers said.

“In many countries, testing is increasing, but the percentage of people who are positive is actually much higher,” Osterholm said.

“This is not an artifact of more testing at all.”

Even with increased testing, the country is still “far behind the virus,” said the former secretary of US Health and Human Services.

“We are still reacting. We are not superior,” said Kathleen Sebelius.

‘Moving very fast in the wrong direction’

What happens in Arizona and other states can erase much of the progress made over the weeks of home stay orders.

“The number of new cases has stabilized in early May, and in fact the positive rate (in testing) has increased,” Humble said.

“We dropped out of a stay at home order in mid-May, and what we saw happening was around May 26th, an increase in cases corresponding to the end of the stay at home order.”

After Houston reported the highest daily count of the new Covid-19 case, Turner called on residents to take security measures more seriously.

“This is a health care crisis,” he said. “To be honest, your failure, for example, to wear a mask … or to get involved in social deviations has a direct impact on others.”

Where countries see stable or improving numbers

In 12 states, the number of new daily cases has generally remained stable in recent days: Alaska, Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

And in 13 states, the number of new cases generally decreases: Alabama, Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Vermont.

“New York moved from one of the highest infection rates in the country to one of the lowest because we made decisions based on science, not politics,” Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday.

“We see in other countries what happens when you have just reopened without regard to metrics or data – it’s bad for public health and for the economy, and countries that are reopening in a hurry now look backfired.”

Cuomo is considering forcing visitors from high transmission countries into quarantine upon arrival to the state of New York, he said.